Month: June 2011

For the vast majority of my life I have lived in the Lake District, UK. Admittedly for most of my younger years I resented living in what I called “the middle of nowhere”, but as I grew up I began to appreciate its beauty. As well as the fantastic world renowned views, the Lake District is home to some amazing wildlife. Growing up in an environment where seeing wild deer, badgers, foxes etc every day is the norm has had a clear influence on my future career. When I was very young I remember seeing one animal in particular in the woods opposite my school almost every day. That animal was the Red Squirrel.

The woods in my village are home to one of the last populations of Red Squirrel in the UK. Despite this, I can’t remember seeing one since I left that primary school 9 years ago. It is thought there are less than 140,000 Red squirrels left in the UK, 85% of which are in Scotland. Thank fully there are people up and down the country dedicated to maintaining, and hopefully increasing population numbers.

General Info

In the UK Red Squirrels are an endangered species and are estimated to be extinct in less than a decade, unless things drastically change. General practice is to blame the Grey (or Gray, dependant on region) Squirrel for the Red’s demise, however this is a little unfair. An estimated 60% of the Grey population carry the Squirrel pox virus like a reservoir – this virus is in all known cases, fatal to the Red Squirrels 4-5 days after infection. Grey squirrels were first introduced to the UK from America in the 1870s and the first Squirrel pox virus case in Cumbria was recorded in 1998.

Contrary to one of my previous statements, grey squirrels are not entirely blameless in the situation. The Greys are much quicker to strip an area of natural resources such as bark, wild bird’s eggs and fledglings, and eat 7 times as much food compared to the Reds. In fact, Red Squirrels are held so close to the hearts of UK citizens that Greys are officially classed as vermin in the UK. It is illegal to release Greys into the wild once caught, to treat for illness or injury and illegal to keep in captivity without licence.

Westmorland Red Squirrel Society

The Westmorland Red Squirrel Society (WRSS) was formed in 2005 and is the group responsible for the Red Squirrels in the woods by my village, and in the whole of South East Cumbria. They aim to raise awareness about the threats facing Red Squirrels, as well as eliminating those threats and therefore increase survival and population numbers.

As mentioned previously, the biggest threat to the Reds is the squirrel pox virus, as well as the competition with Greys for food and habitat. The solutions the WRSS present are to protect the Reds by controlling the Greys and keeping the two populations separate. Co-existing will in all cases result in the Reds being displaced by the Greys, until Grey populations can be controlled.

Is there any hope?

For some it may seem that there is no hope for the Reds, and that their extinction is inevitable, and from the above information I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that. However a paper from Animal Conservation claims in 2000 there were 4 Reds in a group of 140 that had an antibody to the virus. While I can’t find any papers with more up to date figures, it is promising that there is a resistance present in the Reds population. With the work of groups such as the WRSS perhaps the Greys can be held off long enough for the resistance to become dominant through the Red Squirrel population. However, I fear that it may take too long, and the Greys may have displaced too many Reds by that stage. I hope that the work of groups such as WRSS gain the support they deserve, and manage to save this animal from extinction, before it is too late.

When I tell people I study Zoology at University there are 2 common responses:

1) Is that the study of how to be a zookeeper?

2) What is your favourite animal?

Now we all know Zoology is not the study of how to be a zookeeper, but the second question is a little difficult. I couldn’t put my finger on one favourite animal, but I think Elephants are right up there. For those of you who have read my bio you will be aware I will be working in the elephant section at a local zoo this summer. As such, every elephant related soft toy, charm, book and most importantly news article finds its way to my desk from various friends and family. It is from one of these news articles that I became aware of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE).

The ATE is a study of 2500 African elephants over the last 35 years. Each elephant’s ancestry is catalogued, individually tracked and their behaviour observed and recorded. The ATE is founded by Cynthia Moss, who has almost been working with elephants for 40 years. The project is based in southern Kenya, near the border to Tanzania. Their focus is on the behaviour of these animals and to try and understand their intelligence and complex lives.

Findings from the ATE

After 35 years of studying the ATE have a huge database of information on the behaviour of their elephants. The current 1500 elephants at the Amboseli National Park are divided into separate family units comprised of related females and their offspring. Within each family unit there are also bond groups, clans and sub populations.

While everyone is brought up knowing that elephants are “wise” animals, the ATE has reported behaviour and actions that I for one would not have expected. For example they describe a female adult wincing as she watched a young calf extending their trunk to an electric fence. Other behaviour included using tree branches as fly swats, entwining trunks and bumping shoulders as a greeting, waggling heads and prodding each other as a playful incentive, and even females opening their eyes wider to attract potential suitors. The elephants at the ATE also show parental care by dragging stuck calves out of the mud, and walking with calves slower than the family unit, to ensure they don’t get lost. Another behaviour demonstrated has long been known in elephant research – grieving over their dead. Elephants seem to have the ability to distinguish an elephant carcass from any other animal carcass.

Some scientists suggest elephants are as capable as primates in co-operating and their short term memory is in some cases superior to that of humans. Iain Douglas – Hamilton of Save the Elephants, Samburu Nature Reserve Kenya, supports the work of Moss and the ATE, and believes their intelligence in day to day situations is an example of convergent evolution. Fritz Vollrath of Oxford University animal department is not so convinced. He argues that despite the obvious evidence for empathy, intelligence and compassion, is it really the same as our own? It is common for humans to assign human-like behaviour to animals, and Vollrath feels that this is the case in this situation.

Future Research

Elephants have a well developed sense of smell, and odour is an important part of their lives, but to what extent and do we really know the full purpose it serves? I would be the first to assume that the way they use scent is the same as the way another animal, say a dog uses scent. But is that really the case? One of the main reasons this has not been fully researched to the same extent as the ATE project is because it is much more difficult to record and analyse an odour, compared to recording and analysing a behavioural action. Another area the ATE are keen to learn more about is the way empathy effects an elephant’s life, how important it is, and why it developed at all.

Final Thoughts

I started at the beginning of this post explaining that elephants were one of my favourite animals. The current conservation status of the African (bush) elephant is threatened, meaning conservation work needs to be done to try and stop the species from becoming extinct. However, funding is required for this work and a viable source of income is the general public (via charitable donations). Perhaps the fact that elephants display behaviour similar to that of humans will add to the empathy felt for them by our own species. In theory, more empathy should mean more donations; therefore more work can be carried out trying to stop such an iconic animal from facing extinction.

Further Reading

Leadership in Elephants: the adaptive value of age (McComb, K. et al, 2011. Proceedings of the Royal Society B)

The Amboseli Elephants: A Long-term Perspective on a Long-lived Mammal (Moss, C. 2011. University of Chicago Press)